Egypt's Military Clashes With Protesters in Cairo

AP- Egyptian soldiers clashed with hundreds of rock-throwing protesters in central Cairo for a second consecutive day on Saturday, hurling stones from rooftops and firing water from hoses in a crackdown that has left at least eight people dead.

The violence has brought to the fore the simmering tensions between security officers and activists demanding an end to military rule, and threatened to spark a new cycle of fighting after deadly clashes between youth revolutionaries and security forces in November that lasted for days and left more than 40 dead.

Early Saturday, hundreds of protesters hurled stones at security forces who have sealed off the streets around the country's parliament building with barbed wire and large concrete blocks. Soldiers on rooftops pelted the crowds below with stones, prompting many of the protesters to pick up helmets, satellite dishes or sheets of metal to try to protect themselves.

 Stones, dirt and shattered glass covered the streets between the two sides, while flames came out of the windows of a two-story building set ablaze near parliament, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.

 Witnesses said soldiers wielding wooden sticks and dressed in riot gear chased protesters through the streets, forcing them to retreat to nearby Tahrir Square, which served as the epicenter of the uprising that toppled longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February.